Sen. Chuck Schumer was joined by students, parents, and victims of gun violence during a news conference at Julia Richman Education Complex on Sunday in Manhattan.

Congress needs to put universal background checks in the foreground and pass a sweeping gun control plan that includes them and gives judges the power to temporarily disarm potentially dangerous individuals, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday.

“This country cannot turn away from gun violence any longer,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said as he stood next to 25 students holding #NeverAgain signs.

“We have to do something real so that when kids go to school they worry about their tests. They don’t worry about getting shot,” he added.

Under the proposed legislation unveiled Thursday, Congress would close current loopholes in the background check system. Currently, most states do not require background checks at gun shows or for internet sales.

“As the New York City Police Department can attest: Most of New York City’s crime guns originate from states where individuals can evade a gun background check and purchase weapons with cash and no questions asked,” Schumer said.

The New York lawmaker is also urging his colleagues to pass legislation to allow judges to issue protective orders against potentially dangerous individuals. Those orders would temporarily take guns from people who have shown credible signs of wanting to harm themselves or others.

People listen to Schumer during a news conference Sunday to push for stronger gun control laws.

Accused Florida high school shooter Nikolas Cruz, 19, showed many signs of mental instability and repeatedly threatened violence before he killed 17 students and staffers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on in Parkland, Fla, on Feb. 14.

“If someone in your family or in your school looks like they’re really going off the deep end, you can go to court to get an order to take away their gun,” Schumer said. “That should have happened with Cruz in Parkland.”

Marie Delous, 50, who lost her nephew, Pierre-Paul Jean-Paul, 19, to gun violence, said changes to the country’s lax gun laws were long overdue.

“Good guys with a gun would kill bad guys with a gun,” the former Marine sharpshooter said, citing an NRA line. “And it’s not true. If that was true, then we would be the safest country in the world.”

Aidan Obstler, 17, a senior at Hunter College High School, said he stood united with the students at Parkland “in saying ‘Never again!’ ”

“And all politicians, no matter your party, and no matter your state, I urge you to stand with us and to be on the right side of history,” he added. “The NRA is not the future. All of us, we’re the future.”